Wood on Words: The return of 'lie' vs. 'lay'

Barry Wood

Friday

Jun 17, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 17, 2011 at 4:14 PM

“E. coli can stick tightly to the surface of seeds used to grow sprouts, and they can lay dormant on the seeds for months.” — A microbiologist quoted in a recent Associated Press story. Welcome to “lay” vs. “lie,” round 2.

“E. coli can stick tightly to the surface of seeds used to grow sprouts, and they can lay dormant on the seeds for months.” — A microbiologist quoted in a recent Associated Press story.

Welcome to “lay” vs. “lie,” round 2.

In the above quotation, “lay” should have been “lie.” Why?

Because the bacteria were not doing anything except being on the seeds. “Lying” is one of those positions we put ourselves in. “Laying” is for putting something else into position.

In grammatical terms, we say that “lay” requires an object, something to be acted upon.

When I’m changing from being mostly vertical (standing or sitting) to mostly horizontal, I’m “lying” down, NOT “laying” down. I’m altering my own position, but I’m not taking anything else down with me.

So “lying” is like “sitting” or “standing.” “Laying” is like “placing” or “putting.”

Here are Webster’s principal definitions of “lie” and some usage examples (the attributed ones are from John Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations”):

“To be or put oneself in a reclining position along a relatively horizontal surface” (often with “down”).

“On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.” — Woody Allen

“To be in a more or less horizontal position on some supporting surface (said of inanimate things).”

In William Shakespeare’s “King Henry the Fourth, Part II,” the title character says, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

The title of a 1990 episode of the TV show “Columbo,” in which the detective matches wits with a dastardly dentist, pays homage to that quote: “Uneasy Lies the Crown.”